"I know the place," Chiun said softly, so softly the others had to lean closer to understand him.
"Where is it?" Boldbator asked.
"In Chinese Mongolia." Chiun turned to Boldbator Khan. "Will you ride into China with me?"
"I would ride into hell with you," Boldbator proclaimed in a stricken voice.
"And your men?"
"They conquered China once before. Why not again?"
The Master of Sinanju put the same question to Zhang Zingzong in his native tongue.
Zhang's eyes went wide. His face shook. Tears started.
"Hah!" said Boldbator. "This Chinese is more afraid of his own people than of we Mongols. Some hero!"
Boldbator Khan's laughter shook the night. He felt more alive than at any point in his life before tonight. To feel this good, he thought, was worth dying for.
Chapter 25
They set out for Sayn Shanda at the crack of dawn.
The snow blew in like a powdery wall. Suddenly Remo, Fang Yu, and Kula were trudging through a world of howling white noise.
Kula shouted over the howling wind for them to dismount.
"Grab the tails of your ponies," he barked after Remo and Fang Yu had found their feet.
Remo obliged. He felt foolish.
"Now what?" he called.
"Do not let go," Kula cried.
The horses pressed on by themselves. They pushed through the blinding snow like stubborn beasts of burden. They never stopped, never paused, not even to defecate. Remo learned to watch where he put his feet after he heard the telltale plopping sounds on the snow.
After the snow abated, they remounted and continued on.
"It is the Mongol way," Kula boasted, brushing snow off his leather vest. "A Mongol horse will seek his home, or the smell of other horses. It is important not to let go of the tail. He will not do this with a man astride him. For a horse knows who his master is."
The snow had tapered off and the wind dropped to an occasional puff of cold in their faces when they emerged from a snow-filled valley to behold a small city off the northern end of the Gobi.
A small airplane lifted off, to Remo's surprise.
"Is this it?" Remo demanded.
Kula nodded. "Sayn Shanda," he said proudly. "We have crossed the border into Outer Mongolia. Free Mongolia. Come."
They rode into town.
It was a curious mix of modern Asian metropolis and frontier town, Remo saw. Buses, trucks, and cars moved through the streets, and there were few bicycles, at least compared to Beijing. Horses were plentiful, though. He saw several hitched to Wild West-style hitching posts outside of otherwise modern high-rise apartment houses.
"We are safe here," Fang Yu told Remo. "PLA not cross border. Outer Mongolia no longer Communist."
"Does that mean I can call America?" Remo asked, noticing a man walk by wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt that said GENGHIS KHAN LIVES. Other passers-by-both men and women-wore native dels. Many were Chinese in familiar blue work uniforms.
"We will find you hotel," Fang Yu said. "Rest up."
"You two do that if you wish," Kula rumbled. "I will find a warm ger and all the comfort I need therein."
They rode along. Remo noticed that the billboards and street signs were in Cyrillic, the Russian alphabet, not Chinese or Mongolian characters. He still couldn't read any of it, but he took comfort in being able to recognize certain letters.
They came to a hotel that looked no different from any Western hotel, except the statue standing out front was of a stout Mongol warrior in full battle dress. Unlike most of the Mongolians he had encountered, this one had a spray of beard on his chin.
"That is a good hotel," Kula said.
"How do you know?" Remo asked.
"It is the Genghis Khan Hotel," Kula explained. "That is his statue."
"Really?" Remo said. "They named a hotel after Genghis Khan?"
"It is chain," Kula said with a straight face. "The national chain of Mongolia. They are the best. Before, this was the Lenin Hotel and his statue stood in that very spot. No more. Mongolia get rid of Communists. Lenin out. Genghis back in. The old ways are returning. Our blood is the same color again. It makes me proud."
"Well, it takes a Mongol to know one," Remo remarked.
They dismounted. Remo looked around for a hitching post.
"I will take your steed around back," Kula offered. "There will be a stable there. All Genghis Khan Hotels have full accommodations for horses too. I will call on you later to make arrangements for the return of these horses."
"You do that," Remo said, leading Fang Yu into the lobby.
"Bunk with a foreign devil?" Remo whispered to Fang Yu.
"Of course not," she said crisply.
Remo's face fell. He said nothing. Fang Yu had been distant all during the hard ride. He wondered if she regretted joining him.
They went up to the front desk, where a wide-faced Mongolian woman in a bright blue del beamed at them with the most dazzling teeth Remo had ever seen. She looked like an Asian angel, harmless and eager to please.
"Sain Bainu," she said.
"We don't speak Mongolian," Remo told her.
Her face brightened. "Ah, you English?"